Business Gandalf

Critical Techworks; Lisboa; On-site; EUR 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Critical TechWorks is seeking an experienced portfolio leader to govern CTW's Project/Product Portfolio and ensure disciplined decision-making across departments. You will drive alignment through credibility, negotiation, and clear framing of facts and impacts, while preserving portfolio coherence.

The role involves steering processes, balancing competing priorities, and occasional travel to BMW locations. Fluency in English and Portuguese is required, and applicants must have the legal right to

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience, preferably in Planning & Forecasting.
• Solid experience in portfolio management, financial planning, or business operations in technology delivery environments.
• Track record of cross-functional negotiation and stakeholder alignment.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and managing multiple concurrent priorities.

Responsibilities

• Define and maintain Portfolio-level steering processes for forecasts, ramp-ups, ramp-downs, and efficiency initiatives.
• Negotiate alignment between BMW peer departments and manage trade-offs.
• Frame discussions around facts, impacts, and constraints to support convergence.
• Protect Portfolio integrity when bilateral optimizations risk imbalance.
• Test decisions against financial impact, execution feasibility, and cross-departmental consequences.

Skills

Negotiation

Portfolio management

Data analysis

Cross-functional alignment

Ambiguity tolerance

Multilingual (English & Portuguese)

Mediation

Data structuring

Tools

Excel

Power Query

Job description

We're looking for bright Business Gandalfs to join our team

At Critical TechWorks, we're seeking an experienced portfolio leader to provide structure and pragmatism across CTW's Project/Product Portfolio, ensuring that complexity is actively managed and that decisions are both sound and executable. This role exists at the intersection of business priorities, financial realities, and delivery constraints in a multi-Prime environment closely interacting with BMW peer departments. You will lead alignment not by authority alone, but through credibility, negotiation, and clarity - bringing structure to ambiguity where multiple departments operate with overlapping scopes, shared dependencies, or competing priorities.

• Define and maintain Portfolio-level steering processes for Forecasts, ramp-ups, ramp-downs, and efficiency initiatives - ensuring plans remain realistic, consistent, and actionable across departmental boundaries, while decision authority remains with business owners
• Negotiate alignment between BMW peer departments where priorities, funding expectations, or capacity demands conflict - making trade-offs explicit and ensuring shared understanding
• Frame discussions around facts, impacts, and constraints, supporting convergence without escalation while maintaining visibility of the Portfolio as a whole
• Protect Portfolio integrity when bilateral optimizations risk creating downstream imbalance
• Test decisions against financial impact, execution feasibility, and cross-departmental consequences- not only local optimization
• Draw clear boundaries when requests cannot be accommodated or accelerations are not sustainable-calmly, transparently, and based on impact
• Ensure unresolved tensions do not silently propagate through the organization

Whatever you’re working on, here’s the lowdown on the technical skills you’re likely to have:

• Strong negotiation capabilities — able to reach alignment across parties with competing interests while preserving relationships and Portfolio coherence.
• Advanced Excel and Power Query proficiency — comfortable building, validating, and maintaining complex financial models, scenarios, and Portfolio-level datasets.
• Mediation skills — able to facilitate difficult conversations, surface underlying concerns, and drive toward actionable consensus.
• Data structuring — able to organize, synthesize, and make sense of large volumes of operational and financial data from multiple sources.
• Fluency in English and Portuguese.

Experience and background:

• Minimum 5 years of professional experience, preferably in Planning & Forecasting. Sales experience is also a plus.
• Solid experience in portfolio management, financial planning, or business operations in technology delivery environments.
• Track record of cross-functional negotiation and stakeholder alignment.
• Comfort operating in ambiguity and managing multiple concurrent priorities.
• Experience working with or within OEM or automotive technology organizations is a plus.

CTW's Daily Toolkit

This role operates with high autonomy and direct accountability for Portfolio coherence. You will work across departments without formal authority over them — your influence comes from credibility, preparation, and the quality of your analysis.

Expect frequent interaction with BMW peer departments, requiring diplomatic firmness and the ability to hold positions when necessary. Sometimes alignment moves forward; sometimes it must pause. Occasionally, a clear line must be drawn to ensure CTW's long-term sustainability is not compromised.

Travel to Munich or other BMW locations may be required periodically for alignment sessions, steering committees, or escalation forums.

You will be expected to operate pragmatically: balancing ideal solutions against execution reality, managing trade-offs transparently, and ensuring that decisions made today do not create problems six months from now.

We value diversity and encourage applications from individuals with varied backgrounds and experiences. For this position, candidates must already have the legal right to work in Portugal at the time of application.

Who we are

Critical TechWorks seeks a distinct and treasured corporate culture, that is very much our own. This means:

• Growth and Innovation: Be a key player in shaping the future of mobility through innovative ideas.
• Engineering Excellence: Immerse yourself in an environment valuing engineering process, where we create, innovate, lead, and make a tangible impact.
• Autonomy and Collaboration: Thrive in a culture that blends autonomy with teamwork, contributing to groundbreaking developments.
• Continuous Learning: Embrace constant skill enhancement in a dynamic workplace, where your contributions impact cutting-edge technology projects.

Join Critical TechWorks on our journey of innovation, excellence, and redefining the future of motion, one product at a time.

At Critical Techworks we are creating an inclusive culture that values our people’s different viewpoints and experiences, regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity, age, color, ethnicity, religion, or disability.

Our recruitment process is flexible and accessible to ensure fairness. If you need any adjustments to showcase your skills, let us know during your application. We’ll support you with care and confidentiality.

As part of our recruitment process, we may use AI-supported tools to assist in screening and organizing applications. These tools support our recruiters in structuring information, but do not make hiring decisions independently. All recruitment decisions are made by qualified human recruiters with full oversight.